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What does the housing crisis look like where you live?

About us: this blog is written by people in Shelter's policy and campaigning teams in England. Our aim is to promote discussion on housing policy issues, and we do not necessarily represent the views of Shelter.

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I'm Head of Policy at Shelter, and have worked on housing issues in the public, private and third sectors for nine years. I'm a Londoner, a cyclist, father of two young daughters and member of the Hackney Co-housing Project.

Shelter is deeply concerned by how unstable and unaffordable private renting has become. The record high costs of private renting have led to renewed calls for some form of rent control. But we’re not convinced that comprehensive rent caps are the best answer.

Is rent capping the answer?

There are two different ways of using the law to control private rent levels:

1) The old-style rent cap involved setting overall maximum rent levels, giving tenants indefinite contracts, and limiting the rent increases that could be charged to tenants once they were in a contract. It was originally introduced in the UK in 1915 as an emergency wartime measure to deal with housing shortages caused by the absence of any building workforce. However, few comparable countries have such an intensive set of controls today.

2) Germany, France and Spain use what is sometimes called second generation rentcontrol to calm rents without directly setting prices: rents are determined by the market at the outset; renters have longer term contracts and, as long as renters are in these contracts, their rent can only be increased by an inflationary index, such as RPI or CPI.

We think that the second option would dramatically improve private renting in England- and we’ll explain why later on. Although we wouldn’t call it rent control as this often adds to the confusion.

Whether the first option, old-style rent caps, work depends on how landlords respond. Historic and international evidence suggests that the side-effects can be pretty undesirable:

In markets where demand outstrips supply, landlords may discriminate on a tenant’s characteristics rather than price.

Equally, if capped rents do not cover mortgage payments, landlords with large mortgages may be forced to end the tenancy and sell the property. This could leave those families who have no choice but to rent privately with even fewer options.

So, how can we bring down the cost of renting?

Rent levels are high because there are too many people who have to rent, and not enough homes available. Rents can only be reduced sustainably by increasing the overall supply of all types of homes, so that more people can get a social home or buy their own with a mortgage, and fewer private renters have to compete over each available home.

Competition for rented homes is particularly acute in London, which is why Boris Johnson has to get a grip on London’s housing shortage. The Mayor’s current plans do not come close to London’s objectively assessed housing need, for market or affordable homes. Unless we build at least as many homes as London needs – and especially more genuinely affordable homes – we cannot expect the cost of housing to become less prohibitive.

What can we do in the meantime?

But even with concerted action, building the homes we need will take time. So private renting needs to become more stable for the 9 million people who rent, and quickly. To achieve this Shelter has proposed the Stable Rental Contract: a five year fixed-term contract, during which renters could not be evicted without very good reason, and their rents could not rise by more than inflation. Not only would this give renters the stability they need to put down roots and raise a family, it would also have a calming effect on rents by reducing churn and increasing renters’ bargaining power.Similar measures have worked well in other countries.

It is often the instability of renting that is so damaging. Each tenancy ending means a huge deposit, more agency fees, unpredictable rent increases and moving costs. The Stable Rental Contract is not rent capping – but it would help to reduce the upward pressure on rents.

What next?

At Shelter we are desperate to make renting better and more affordable- no policy is ever off the table. The trouble is, no-one has yet produced any strong evidence that suggests rentcaps would really benefit renters. However, with the sector growing so rapidly in some parts of the country, the issues associated with private renting have become increasingly location-specific. In this context there is an argument for London’s Mayor, and local councils in pressurised renting hotspots, to be given greater power to intervene to fix private renting.

In the late twentieth century, Britain moved from having the most, heavy-handed regulation of private renting in the world to having the most deregulated, uncontrolled system anywhere. We are now seeing the impact of the almost complete lack of consumer protection for renters. Rather than swinging the pendulum back from one extreme to the other, we should be trying to find sustainable, modern methods of preventing rents spiralling out of families’ reach.

The solution, at the stroke of a pen, is to introduce
German style rent and tenancy controls. Inadequate landlords will leave the market, releasing
swathes of properties for purchase. Those that remain, willing to offer a
useful service fitting of their pivotal role in the community, will be
able to attain a fair rental but no more. The system works in Germany
and there is no justification for it not being applied here despite the
usual protestations from the self-interested parties. The options of
licensing and fines will allow policing of the sector.

urbanospreys

I cannot believe Shelter oppose rent capping, the one thing I am looking for in political parties’ 2015 manifestos.

£65 per bedroom per week from Harris to Hampstead and no exceptions. Total flexibility below that limit. Collapse house price inflation caused by the domestic and international buy-to-let tier, return homes to real buyers, allow tenants to save and/or flood the economy with spending power, slash housing benefit spend.

There is no downside to rent capping. Would you rather your minimum wage went up by £5 a week or your rent came down by £50? One option impacts employers, a necessary tier, the other impacts buy-to-let, an utterly useless tier of society who could turn their talents to something beneficial.

There are clear ways to tackle any ‘down side’ to rent capping. If a logged repair isn’t looked at within a week, the tenant could have the right to repair and deduct costs from rent. New Jersey subdivisions?
Number of bedrooms is held with councils, and rents are based on that.

Not enough new homes are going to be built to level out the market and lower rents. They will be bought-to-let at today’s extortionate rates. It’s time for action on this issue.

cloakanddagger

This is a campaign I wish to start/get involved in. You are right no one anywhere is just stating the obvious: rents are too high. If you want to be involved in a campaign let me know.

Thor fenris

You have no chance whatsoever of acheiving this. None. No political party will back this bar some extreme leftist ones who have zero chance of being part of government.

justaneconomist

Rent is the thing that underpins house values in the UK – cap it and you will cause a house price crash which will cause a recession which will cause huge unemployment which will cause poor people to lose their jobs. Be careful what you wish for. It is unfair for someone to have bought a house for £300,000 thinking they could get 5%pa in rent due to the market and then have that capped at say 2 or 3% their sums will no longer add up and they will be bankrupted.
One reason why rents are so high in this country is because of housing benefit increasing the money available to landlords.

Will Hirsch

If you cannot believe Shelter would oppose rent caps, wouldn’t it be a good idea to consider what they might understand from their experience of the housing sector that you don’t?

Wayne

So Shelter would rather rent continues to become unaffordable for many which in turn means they become homeless and then unemployed because they have nowhere to live. I expected more from you to be honest but this article just sounds like something that has come from the Tories propaganda machine

http://andybrice.net Andy Brice

Rent caps might be a nice idea in theory. But in practice they do not work. Shelter is offering pragmatic, workable solutions.

Thor fenris

No one has a right to live in Central London.

JSM

I am a landlord and my expenses this year have been £12,000! The property is in Kent and I charge £800 pm for a 3 bedroomed property. As it stands I am making a huge loss, but am happy to spend money on keeping it nice as it is a long term investment and my tenants stay happy. I only let to professionals, as my lender will not allow me to take in people on housing benefit. A rent cap would destroy me. I agree with Shelters idea which offers stability all round.

http://www.alessioandreani.com/ Alessio Andreani

Rent caps are not meant for you.

I pay £560 for a room in a 4 bedrooms house. Other 3 people pay about £500 average (i have the “biggest” room), so they are making more than £2000 on a 4 bedrooms house. Actually is a 2 bedrooms but they divided the living area in 2 “new” bedrooms. We have a kitchen so small that it doesn’t have a chair or table (i am the only one who have a table in the room to eat, others eat standing or on the bed). I’m living almost 1 hour from the center, Zone 4, London.

Rent caps or any other type of regulation must be applied at least to London.

With £800 pm in London (even Zone 4 or 5) is not enough for living in a property alone. Maybe you can have a decent double room, sharing the house, in a nice Zone 3 for that price.

Peter Parslow

You miss the option of reducing the demand by moving jobs out of London. I think it was the 70s when government agencies & others were encouraged to relocate. Some managed, but many found it would be too expensive – people liked living in London, and wanted substantial compensation to move.

If you currently live & work in London, why? Is it that you can’t get a job elsewhere? If your employer moved to somewhere where housing was more affordable, how would you feel?
(Rant: I typed a post in, then clicked to log in as Facebook. I’m now logged in – but have to retype the whole post!)